The Project Management Matrix approach

Hello everyone I have finally made a transition to a new position. I am now the manager of an IT department. Ok, let's be truthful, I am a manager in name only. What I have really become is a glorified vacation tracker. Can you say "Highly paid administrative assistant?" I moved into an organization with what they call a "Project Management matrix". I am the manager of a functional development area. But, the projects are managed by an IS Project Manager who works for another department. She is not strong techncally, but is going to estimate time and resources (hardware and people) to complete the development of a claims management system. When I asked her what she expected me to do, she promptly replied "Well someone has to track PTO and do reviews". Well I am not quite sure that is what a Project Management Matrix is really supposed to be. I do know that it seems the project is going in circles, and has been going that way for the last couple of months. The only individuals who knew what was going on were fired (and one resigned because the other was fired). This is a very large organization and you would think there would be very clear rules on how projects are managed. But obviously I thought wrong, as I can't see to find one iota of common sense to the structure. Can someone tell me how a Project Matrix Management model works? And how IT projects are managed under this model ? I can't seem to figure it out. Signing out. El glorified secretary (Don't forget highly paid)

Some name

"Wow, thanks!! That really makes a lot more sense than what I have seen. And it seems to be a viable solution to providing shared resources. I guess it's just not perfected at this company yet, or I just didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. Now that I do understand my role, I am going to start being a little more aggressive in doing my job. Somehow I didn't think they wanted me to track vacation time, but then one never knows...

"Hi unknown norwegian Actually, this blog really is not a joke, and these are real problems that many people face. It may seem like a joke, because you would THINK these types of things don't happen, but I have worked at a lot of different companies, and these things happen all the time. And we struggle to find out how to deal with them. I actually get more comments to posts like this than I do with Technical posts. I do like your advice though, and if I figure out how to do that and get paid enough, I will certainly follow it. Or if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. thanks! Kawaii